The present invention relates to a method of enabling and administering commercial transactions using a computerised administration system, in particular commercial transactions relating to the sale of recordings of sounds and/or images and/or text. The present invention also relates to an administration system for implementing the method.
The present invention has particular relevance to recordings of music, but is equally applicable to other recordings in which intellectual property rights exist.
In the music industry there are number of smaller record companies which are called xe2x80x9cindependent record labelsxe2x80x9d. These independent record labels have difficulty in competing with the larger multinational record companies. The smaller record companies have difficulty in obtaining comparable terms with e.g. compact disk manufacturers, sellers of digital downloads or providers of pay-for-play services. The independent record labels also have difficulty in obtaining the same commercial terms with distributors.
The costs of infrastructure for independent record labels such as payment administration systems and records of agreements can be prohibitive for independent record labels.
It is quite common for retailers to establish web sites on the Internet, and indeed some retailers trade only on the Internet. Their websites offer consumers the opportunity to purchase for instance books, compact disks, CD ROMS, or to purchase digital downloads of, for instance, music.
Electronic retailers have not found it easy to purchase sound recordings or the rights to digitally distribute sound recordings of independent record labels. For a start, there is the problem of knowing who produces products for the independent record labels. In this respect, it should be understood that an independent label will not itself produce compact disks but instruct a compact disk manufacturer to produce the goods on its behalf. Also, it is unlikely that an independent record label will invest in the technology necessary to deliver digital files containing music. Instead, the independent record label will contract a supplier to supply the digital files on its behalf. To date it has been difficult for the electronic retailers easily to ascertain how to obtain product when they receive an order from a consumer or product for stock to sell to a consumer.
The present invention provides in a first aspect a method of enabling and administering commercial transactions, the method comprising the steps of:
storing in a computer database records of a plurality of recordings of sounds and/or images and/or text together with records of a plurality of holders of intellectual property rights in or related to the recordings;
storing in the computer database records of agreements concluded between the holders of the intellectual property rights and a plurality of suppliers licensed to use the intellectual property rights, the suppliers producing a variety of different types of products deliverable to consumers under the agreements;
making the computer database accessible via a telecommunications network to purchasers who may wish to purchase the products produced by the suppliers; and
enabling the purchasers to search the database to ascertain for each recording which supplier is licensed to produce each type of product.
The present invention provides in a second aspect a method of enabling and administering commercial transactions using a computerised administration system, the method comprising the steps of:
a plurality of holders of Intellectual Property rights in a plurality of recordings of sounds and/or images and/or text offering the recordings for sale on a plurality of sites hosted on a plurality of host computer apparatus and publicly accessible from a telecommunications network;
a purchaser using client computer apparatus to order electronically via the telecommunications network recordings from the plurality of different sites of the holders of Intellectual Property rights;
each host computer apparatus relaying details regarding the orders of the purchaser to a payment administration system common to all the publicly accessible sites and contained in the computerised administration system;
the purchaser making a single electronic payment via the telecommunications network to the payment administration system in respect of orders made placed by the purchaser at a plurality of different publicly accessible sites;
storing in a first computer database of the computerised administration system records of the plurality of recordings of sounds and/or images and/or text offered for sale by the holders of the Intellectual Property rights holders;
storing in a second computer database of the computerised administration system records of agreements concluded between the holders of the Intellectual Property rights and a plurality of suppliers licensed under the Intellectual Property rights; and
the computerised administration system using the first and second databases thereof to determine from the orders placed by the purchaser which suppliers are authorised to supply the requested recordings and to relay electronically via the telecommunications network the orders to the relevant suppliers along with payment for the orders.
It should be understood that in the context of the invention purchasers will include electronic retailers ordering products for delivery to the end consumer as well as other music users such as broadcasters and juke box operators.